runningfool wrote:
Hello everone,
I recently took the gmat and did poorly on the quant section. I did not prepare adequately and am confident I can improve my score significantly.
As background info, I have never been a gifted math student but I have managed to get mostly A's in college level math & stats, including calc 1 & 2. I did this mainly through hard work rather than a natural aptitude.
To become better prepared, I have made arrangements to acquire the 5 book Manhattan quant set, the 12the ed
OG, the 1st ed Quant
OG, as well as the Manhattan
OG companion.
My question to you is how to best use these books? I should have them in my hands on Monday, and will be eager to begin my prep at that time. Do I simply review them in order, and then attack the OGs? Or is there some other plan or process that would help me build my knowledge more effectively?
Also, the only Manhattan book I do not have access to is the Foundations of GMAT Math book. Is this book worth having, especially since I will have all the others? What if anything does it provide that the other books do not?
Thanks!
I would recommend you to finish all the solved examples at the end of each chapter first from the
MGMAT rather than trying to solve all the related question from
OG as well. Problem with latter is that you may be stuck with
MGMAT and
OG for a long time that way.
If you just solve the exercises from
MGMAT, you will be done with the guides faster and it will be less boring. After you are all done with
MGMAT theory and solve examples, try to solve related topics that's mentioned at the end of every guide. This way you will get a chance to revisit the topics you may have forgotten from your first reading of the
MGMAT theory. Also, if you get bored of doing too many
OG problems, you can take practice problems from other sources and try to solve them. After all, you are already done with your theory.
I feel
MGMAT guides are pretty decent for startup. You may have to practice problems, read from other sources to better yourself in advance topics of inequality and permutation/combination/geometry.
As for other source, I feel GMAT Club math book does a pretty decent job in summarizing most of the formulas and technique:
gmat-math-book-87417.htmlI remember taking a cursory look into "Foundations of GMAT Math". I didn't find it to be too valuable.
You can read this if you have ample time:
new-to-the-math-forum-please-read-this-first-77764.html